My preliminary excavations eventually resulted in my confining attention to three sites in that part of the necropolis which lies between the dromos leading to Dêr el Bahari and the great gorge giving entrance to the valley of the Tombs of the Kings. These three sites were: (1) a spot a few metres to the north of the village mosque, where, according to the natives, lay a hidden tomb; (2) the Birâbi,[1] which is near the desert edge, between the hills of Drah abu ‘l Nagga and the cultivated land, and adjoins the entrance to the dromos of Hatshepsût’s famous terrace temple; and (3) that part of the XIth Dynasty cemetery which lies along the hill slope, on the northern side of the Dêr el Bahari valley.
Excavation on the first site was begun in 1908, and, after a fortnight’s arduous work among the native houses and rubbish heaps of the village, an important inscribed tomb of the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty was opened. This tomb proved to be of a ‘King’s Son’ named Teta-Ky, and contained, among many painted scenes, a figure of Aahmes-nefert-ari, the queen of Aahmes I and mother of Amenhetep I. This is the earliest known portrait of the celebrated queen, who
afterwards became the patron goddess of the necropolis: she is figured as of fair complexion and not black, as is usually the case in her portraits of a later date. The scene shows her adoring the goddess Hathor, as a cow issuing from a cliff; and behind her is a lady, presumably the queen’s mother,[2] named Teta-hemt, who is otherwise unknown. In the course of clearing this tomb many wooden Funerary Figures, in model coffins, were brought to light. These figures were of two types: (1) rudely carved mummiform figures with model coffins of wood, clay, or pottery, some of which were inscribed with hieratic or linear hieroglyphic texts; and (2) well-carved figures in wood, painted and with gilt faces, and inscribed with an early form of Chapter VI of the Book of the Dead. The figures of the first type were all found in the four niches in the courtyard wall (Pls. I and II). Those of the second type were buried in pairs in shallow holes round the four sides of the top of the main pit shaft in the centre of the courtyard floor ([Pl. II]). The placing of shawabti figures in this position—as it were for them to guard the mouth of the pit of the sarcophagus chamber—is only known in this instance.
The clearance of Teta-Ky’s tomb having been completed, we turned our attention to the Birâbi site. Three days’ digging in the loose débris unmasked a hidden burial-place. Masses of pottery and denuded mummies were brought to light, and at the very threshold of the tomb (afterwards numbered 9) were discovered two wooden tablets (one in fragments) covered with stucco and inscribed with hieratic texts. One of these tablets has written (1) on its obverse, an important historical text relating to the expulsion of the Hyksos kings by the King Kamosi; and (2) on its reverse, a copy of part of the well-known Proverbs of Ptah-hetep.